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Friday, November 22, 2013

Looks like Kmart is giving the NBA a run for their money! Who knew we would spend the holidays trying to find the most creative way to play a holiday tune! I'll have to post the NBA version as a follow up but in the meantime here is a group of guys swaying their sacks as a cross-promotion with Joe Boxer. Pretty catchy...yes but more importantly what did you think?

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

When in doubt put a baby in it? Looks like that happened here with Samsung's Motion Sync vacuum cleaner. This commercial features a rudely awoken baby that chases the vacuum cleaner around the house looking to get some sweet revenge. The highlight certainly has to be the bite sized mustache but in terms of anything else I didn't really get much. Wasn't I supposed to leave this wanting the vacuum?

Friday, May 3, 2013

I seem to get asked this question quite often. It really isn't talked about much and to be fair, LinkedIn doesn't do a great job of making it obvious to the user. So, as part of my new blog series, I want to provide answers to some of the questions that I get asked and to those questions that I want answers to! Without wasting any more of your time, here goes...How to remove a LinkedIn connection:1) Hover over"Contacts"and click"Connections"2) Click"Remove Connections"3) Select the contacts you wish to remove and then click "Remove Connections"

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

My new favorite app is here! I'm sure I'm pretty late to the game but either way I still thought it was worth sharing. The other day I was in desperate need for gas when I realized I didn't have enough Giant Gas Points to get me a solid discount from Shell. So...I went to the App Store and downloaded GasBuddy. The great thing about it was that it was so easy to use. Better yet, it sorts out all the gas stations by price so you can always find the cheapest location nearby! The other thing I found particularly useful was that it gave you gas prices for regular, midgrade, premium, and diesel gas. If you haven't already, go ahead and download GasBuddy! Do you have any favorite travel apps? If you do, I would love to hear about them! Leave me a comment with some of your favorites.

Monday, December 10, 2012

Never ever say NO to Panda! Hahah...probably one of the greatest commercials out there. This thing is fantastic. If you're the kind of person who loves very subtle humor, this is it right here. This particular series of commercials was produced in Egypt by Advance Marketing for Arab Dairy, the manufacturers of Panda Cheese. The commercial features a giant panda who torments people for wanting to try the deliciousness that is Panda Cheese. The video below is a compilation of all the Panda commercials and certainly features enough amusement for an entire day! Personally, I would have to say my favorite bit is when the hospital patient turns down the Panda Cheese and the camera slowly pans to the Panda disconnecting the IV. Love it. What about you? What was your favorite bit?

Monday, October 29, 2012

IKEA has come out with a new campaign called “Entertaining” in the U.K. and Ireland. The spot “stars a group of kids and their wacky friends—an enormous stuffed bear, a giant toy robot, a life-size action figure, and others—preparing a dinner party in an IKEA kitchen while dancing to [a] goofy song” (AdWeek). Mother London, the agency behind the campaign, claims that the spot “explores the insight that adults and children all behave better when they're sat around the same table together, rather than the children being sat at the end of the table"(AdWeek). A very heart warming spot from our favorite company from Sweden. Now…if only they could make building their furniture a little less complicated!

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Nothing like obesity to strike a conversation of both hatred and praise. Nike's "Find Your Greatness" campaign was a huge hit during the Olympics even if they weren't a sponsor! There were a number of different spots but the one that seemed to get under peoples skin was the one featuring Nathan Sorrell, dubbed by some as the "fat kid" running down the street.

There isn't anything particularly special, it's just him running. What makes it really good, is the voice over. You wouldn't think this would be that big of a problem, but I suppose a lot of people are getting upset that Nike is exploiting this kid for the simple purpose of selling shoes. I wouldn't necessarily say they are exploiting him, but sorry, they're a business, and it's their job to sell a product. And come one now, hasn't Nike had some far worse business practices in the past for us to worry about?

Here we are spending time hating on Nike and this poor kid, but why aren't we praising them for tackling the issue of obesity head on. None of their competitors are doing it, they took a risk and it paid off. Big time. Nathan on the other hand, we should be showing him nothing but kindness. This guy had all the courage in the world to film a commercial of him recognizing that he has a problem and that he hopes to try fix it by whatever means possible. That right there is pretty bold.

At the end of the day, if you still don't like the commercial, then direct all your frustration at Nike. For those who haven't seen it yet, check it out and as always remember to leave your comments below!

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

You and I are officially friends forever. I didn't mean to post about this so late, but one thing lead to the other and well you know how that goes. Anyways, what's important is that I'm here now and I wanted to share the experience I had with your airline with my current and future readers.

Very best,

Kenneth Westling

Let me begin by saying that American Airlines seriously went above and beyond the call of duty here. I'll try to be as concise as possible, but I want to make sure I include all the details. On the morning of April 30th, my wife and I left for Dulles International Airport expecting to leave on our honeymoon to St. Lucia via Miami at 6 AM. Everything was going according to plan and with a flight leaving at 6AM, you would think that nothing could really get in our way. Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worse.

We boarded our flight at approximately 5:30 in the morning excited and ready to go, but that excitement quickly faded when we were told that the plane had a mechanical error and the part they needed to replace could only be retrieved from a nearby airport. Needless to say, we had to get off the plane. I can't say we were pleased, but we were trying our best not to let the situation get us down. That changed very quickly when we found out the plane was going to be delayed by 5 hours and we were going to not only miss our connecting flight to St. Lucia, but we were also going to miss our first night at our resort in St. Lucia that we had paid for. Looking for an outlet to complain I did what all people do when they want to complain, I went to Twitter.

In times like these I look to Twitter to express my displeasure with @AmericanAir.Zero communication going on over at Dulles. #delayed
— Kenneth Westling (@westlingk) April 30, 2012

So what happened next is where everything really begins. Immediately after sending that tweet, I received a message from American Airlines asking what the problem was. After exchanging a few messages, my original thought was that they do this with everyone, but really, I doubt anything is going to come of this. Little did I know, they took my complaints to heart and told me they would try get our vacation back on the right foot.

We finally embarked on our journey and made our way towards Miami. As we were waiting to get off the plane in Miami we hear someone go on the intercom and say "Will Mr. and Mrs. Westling please step to the side when leaving the aircraft." Initially, I thought to myself, oh great, I didn't mean it!" But to my surprise there was a woman named Lori standing there from the American Airlines customer service department. Lori explained how sorry she was, and wanted to make things right. She explained to me how she saw my tweets, and when I say saw, I mean literally saw my tweets. In her hand was a piece of paper with my Twitter profile and all the tweets I sent!! She said she knew exactly who she was looking for. Well, because of this, she explained how sorry she was for the inconvenience, and as a treat she not only gave us some spending cash in Miami, but she set us up for the night, and best of all, we received business class tickets to St. Lucia AND allowed us to move our flights one extra day free of charge so that we could extend our honeymoon.

This was by far the greatest piece of customer service I've ever received. From my experience, companies rarely go that one extra step to drastically change a customers experience. Usually they leave that to a few carefully crafted words. But what you had here, was not only the web aspect, but you also had Lori who greeted us in Miami and made the whole experience personable. It really felt like they cared, and that really mattered.

American Airlines went the extra mile and for that I wanted to say thank you, and I look forward to flying again with you in the near future.

Thursday, June 21, 2012

I've been meaning to post this commercial for quite some time, but for whatever reason I just haven't had the time. Anyways, I'm sure your familiar with this one, but Best Buy produced this commercial that originally aired during the Super Bowl (I think), and it features some of the worlds leading innovators. Now, I thought this commercial was pretty cool all around. I mean, I've never seen the person who invented the camera phone, or, even the person who invented SMS. That right there is pretty cool. On the other hand, what this post is going to gear towards, is that it bothers me that this commercial features the two guys who invented "Words with Friends." Are you serious? First of all, you invented a mobile version of a game called "SCRABBLE" that was originally created in 1948!! How on earth do you classify that as an innovator? Granted, Mr. Bettner has worked on some high profile games in the past, but to be included in this spot is just a little ridiculous. Anyhow, I've wanted to voice that for a while now. Let me know what you think!

Monday, May 28, 2012

Nike's "I would run to you" features two lovers looking to do whatever they can to be with each other. "Whatever they can" in this case involves running across the U.S. until they finally can be with one another. Wieden+Kennedy, the agency behind this commercial, shot the spot in three cities and five states over the course of 11 days. The commercials two main characters engage in a catchy duet that features the woman running gracefully with her new Nikes, and the man running well...not so gracefully. He actually ends up in the hospital and has some sort of revelation where he realizes that he could just stay where he is while his girlfriend runs...to him! Things certainly became easier for him at this point. This romantic twist on running was a winner for Nike. They do a great job of not only telling us that running is fun, but it also hints that running is something you could do with the person you love. It's worth checking out. Let me know what you thought!